This year I decided that I wanted to attend Illuxcon, I bought my ticket in January during my winter break and knew that all the work I created from that moment to the beginning of September could end up being in my portfolio. Luckily between my thesis and generally nonstop drawing, it wasn't to difficult to choose 12 images for my Illuxcon portfolio.

Thursday night, after my 10:00 class ended, I jumped in my car to head to Allentown. Unfortunately it rained the entire drive from school to Allentown, at some points I was driving less then 50 mph because of rain fall. But I made it there in one piece. I checked into the hotel, and quickly passed out from the long drive.

The next morning I got up early to be at the Allentown Art Museum as Illuxcon opened. For the first hour, not to many visitors where on the floor, making it easy to move around and see lots of the paintings. Very soon, the floor filled with students and other illustrators, some getting portfolio reviews, some purchasing prints, and others buying the paintings off the walls. For the good portion of the first day I talked to the illustrators exhibiting in the main showcase. I was very excited to have Chris Seaman review my portfolio, as he is one of my favorite illustrators. His paintings have a great sense of color and stylization that is often missed in the fantasy genera because most often its realistic oil paintings (not that there is anything wrong with that). Its easy to relate to more stylized work for me. I even purchased an illustration from Chris Seaman and happy to say its my very first original illustration that I have purchased.

Later on in the day I went to a lecture about illustration verus concept art. It was interesting to here two different opinions, one being Robh Ruppel from Naughty Dog and the other Jon Schindehette of Dungeons and Dragons. It all leads down to what answers are being found, a final answer or an explorative answer.

I also purchased to white backed magic cards from Ryan Pancoast and Ralph Horsely. A white back is a printed magic card with out the normal logo of Magic written on the back. Its left white and illustrators often sell them with a nice sketch of the back. From Ryan Pancoast, I got a goblin and from Ralph Horsely I got a tree folk.

Later that night was the showcase at the Holiday Inn a few blocks away. Many students, up and coming illustrators, and seasoned pros set up tables with originals and prints. It was great to see so many people passionate about one thing and it made the experience even greater. I got to meet Sean Murray, who worked on the game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, one of my favorite games I've ever played. I purchased his sketchbook and it is amazing to look through.

There were the books, prints, and the original painting that I bought on my first day of Illuxcon. After the showcase, I headed back to my hotel to do some home work with all the energy from Illuxcon.